Stand-up comic handles himself admirably to a loaded racist comment.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Indian-origin stand-up comic Deepak Sethi got a bit of a surprise while performing in front of a live audience at a comedy club in Las Vegas last month.
During his set, Sethi asked if anyone in the audience was a member of the US Military, to which one man in the audience replied affirmatively. Before Sethi could say anything else, the man shouted “We’re comin’ for ya!” to Sethi, heckling him in front of the audience.
Rather than get defensive, Sethi began laughing, and used the heckling as a way to improve over two minutes of new jokes. The audience clearly appreciated Sethi’s talent, and the comedian himself had trouble keeping his composure as he kept laughing at the absurdity of the soldier’s remark. The man who made the remark has not been identified by Sethi or anyone else.
Taking to popular social site Reddit after the incident, Sethi clarified that the soldier actually bore no ill will towards him, and was actually a very nice man who was just trying to make a joke. As Sethi explained it:
“Hey guys, this is me, Deepak Sethi. Thanks for the upvotes [a Reddit term whereby users click a “thumbs up” for posts like they like and “thumbs down” for posts they don’t] and comments. Just to give you a little more info about this night: this was at the LA Comedy Club in Las Vegas (at Bally’s Casino). The dude was a real vet, we talked after the show and he was really cool. He was with his wife who was super embarrassed. I got them free comps to future shows for being a good sport. Like someone else mentioned, this was the friendliest heckle ever! I really don’t think he was trying to be racist.”
Brought up in Canada, Sethi rose to fame in 2009 by maintaining an anonymous online Twitter account full of his own personal comedic ramblings. The account amassed over 2.2 million followers, including actress Alyssa Milano. After being discovered, Sethi became a writer for the Comedy Central show “Tosh.O,” and was a staff writer on the tenth season of the hit Fox animated comedy “Family Guy,” an episode of which he received a writing credit for (it’s “Family Guy Viewer Mail #2,” for fans who are curious).
He is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario, from which he graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor of Science degree.
The incident, which happened in December, just made its way onto YouTube last week, and can be viewed below (please be warned that it contains some strong language):
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com